1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine monitor system for monitoring the state of each of a plurality of machines connected via a computer network, a local monitor unit and an integrated monitor unit making up such a machine monitor system, a machine monitor method using such a machine monitor system, a computer-readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a local monitor unit, and a computer-readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as an integrated monitor unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer is one of peripheral machines constructing a computer system centering on a personal computer. It consumes toner, ink, an ink ribbon, etc. (the “consumable article”), in response to its print method. When the remaining amount of toner, ink, etc., is low, the quality of the characters and images printed by the printer is degraded. When the printer runs out of toner, ink, etc., it cannot print and enters a non-operational state. Thus, it is desirable to monitor the remaining amount of the consumable article to avoid entry of the machine into a non-operational state.
Japanese Patent Number JP-A-9-188042 discloses an example of a recorder capable of monitoring consumables. The recorder disclosed here detects the remaining amount of ink, etc., and when the remaining amount falls below a predetermined value, the recorder automatically transmits an ink purchase order to a store by fax.
To realize the system described in JP-A-9-188042, a communication system for transmitting a purchase order to a store by fax, namely, a communication machine such as a modem and communication software must be built in each recorder. However, if the communication system is built in each recorder, a steep rise in costs of each recorder occurs. To connect each recorder to a telephone line, a considerable investment becomes necessary. Particularly, an extremely large number of printers are installed in offices as compared with copiers, thus building of a communication system in each recorder and connecting of each recorder to a telephone line cost enormously. On the other hand, in stores, facsimile machines receive purchase orders from the recorders; if a large number of recorders are involved, while a facsimile machine receives a purchase order issued from one printer, the facsimile communication occupies the telephone line, thus purchase orders issued from other units, etc., cannot be received. To avoid such a situation, the number of reception lines must be increased and a steep rise in costs of the reception system in the store also occurs. This point is a first problem in the related art.
In the system described in JP-A-9-188042, purchase orders are transmitted separately from printers to a store and personnel in the store must manually sort the purchase orders and adds up the order figures. However, as the number of recorders to be monitored increases, the number of purchase orders also increases, thus making it difficult to add up the order figures. The actual maintenance items for recorders include not only replenishment of consumables of ink, etc., but also items requiring dispatching of maintenance personnel such as photosensitive drum replacement. When requests for such maintenance are issued from printers, if maintenance personnel are dispatched as requested by the printers, there is a possibility that a number of maintenance persons may be dispatched separately to a plurality of recorders installed at the same site (namely, a plurality of recorders belonging to the same user) within a short time period. If maintenance personnel concentrate thus on one site, a situation in which other customers must wait a long time for maintenance personnel to come can also occur. This point is a second problem in the related art.
In the art described in JP-A-9-188042, the threshold value of the ink remaining amount for requesting the recorder to transmit a purchase order is set uniformly for all recorders. However, the consumption speed of consumables including ink, a photosensitive drum, and paper varies depending on the recorder installation place and the recorder application, thus the time interval between the instant at which a purchase order is transmitted and the instant at which consumables run out actually is multifarious. For example, for a printer with an extremely large ink consumption amount per day, the time interval between the instant at which the ink remaining amount falls below the threshold value and the instant at which ink runs out is shorter than that for a printer with a standard ink consumption amount. Therefore, if a purchase order is transmitted when the ink remaining amount falls below the threshold value, there is a possibility that the printer may run out of ink before ink sent according to the purchase order arrives at the user. In contrast, with a printer with an extremely small ink consumption amount per day, if ink is sent according to a purchase order transmitted when the ink remaining amount falls below the threshold value, there is a possibility that ink may still remain in the printer after the ink arrives at the user. In this case, the ink arriving at the user is kept idle without being loaded into the printer, thus it is feared that the ink quality may be degraded. Since purchase orders are sent to a store at random from recorders, orders may concentrate at a time in large quantities or no orders may be given. Thus, the store cannot predict shipment amounts and thus must always have large amounts of articles in stock. This point is a third problem in the related art.